Photography Ideas For Artistic Photography Projects — Negative Space

Are you searching for some photography ideas for a photography project? Selecting a photography project that not only creates some great shots but also helps you build your photography skills would be a good idea. There are various skills that one can pick for a project. This article presents one skill, negative space, which you can use for a photography project that can help to develop your skills.

Negative space is essentially a compositional method. When applied correctly, its use can produce beautiful images.

Making Use of Negative Space

There are three main compositional components to a photography image.

Frame: The border that identifies the edges of the image.

Positive Space: The positive space is composed of the objects that the photo is all about. Put simply, it is the main subject of the photograph.

Negative Space: The space between the positive space and the frame.

Any photograph is formed, in various proportions, of the frame, positive space, and negative space. In order to create impressive photos, it is necessary to manage these components.

When composing photographs, some people tend to think mostly in terms of the positive space. Very little consideration is put into the negative space. It is treated almost as an unimportant part of the image. This is not the best way to compose an image! When handled well, the negative space can carry out two important functions. Thus, the negative space can significantly enhance an image:

First: The negative space can serve to define the positive space.

Second: The negative space can encircle the positive space in a way that can make it much more conspicuous.

The negative space can serve to help define the positive space by furnishing detail about the positive space. As one example, a photo may show part of a bridge. Nevertheless, there may be few details that give any suggestions of where the bridge is based. Is the subject that forms the positive space in a crowded, urban park or in a natural environment? We can not tell from the close-up. More information is necessary to better define the positive space. If the photographer were to show some of the landscape around the positive space, this would produce some negative space that would help to better define the positive space.

However, when making use of the negative space in this manner, it is essential that the negative space not overpower the positive space. For this example, the photographer could render the negative space a bit out of focus so that it becomes subservient to the positive space.

The essential point here is that the negative space has to support, not compete with, the positive space. Otherwise, the negative space will not likely enhance the image.

The negative space can also help make the positive space stand out. This is achieved because the negative space helps to manage the attention of a viewer. It does this by helping to direct the viewer’s attention to the positive space. To make the negative space more effective at focusing the attention, all distracting detail must be eliminated from the negative space.

So the moral of the story is that each of these two spaces needs to be very carefully evaluated when an image is composed.

Photography Project

Now, it’s time for your photography project. Why not create a portfolio of images with negative spaces that function to enhance the images?

In Conclusion

This article covered one skill you can use to begin a photography project. However, much more can be learned.